


Frame by Frame

by gottacatchghosts (octolingkiera)



Series: phic phight '19 [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, pseudosciencey stuff lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 23:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/octolingkiera/pseuds/gottacatchghosts
Summary: From Phic Phight 2019Prompt: As a result of having a time medallion phased into him, Danny begins to exhibit time powers.





	Frame by Frame

**Author's Note:**

> prompt by [five-rivers on tumblr](https://five-rivers.tumblr.com/)
> 
> this prompt was fun as hell omfg

There’s something wrong with Danny.

Well, _wrong_ isn’t the best word to use. _Weird_ is more appropriate, but really, what about Danny isn’t weird these days? But still, something is _wrong_ and Danny has no idea what it is.

Ever since that _incident_ with that alternate future, Danny’s felt off, off balance, off kilter, fundamentally changed in a way that has nothing to do with the trauma of seeing almost everyone he’s ever cared for caught in a fiery explosion. (That part doesn’t bother him at all, no really, _honest_.)

It didn’t even have to do with seeing that abomination with his name and his face claiming to be him. Ten years from now is so obscure to his fourteen-year-old mind that even the thought of _being_ twenty-four is enough to separate him from the “could-be”s.

No, it’s something else entirely. Something Danny can’t put his finger on.

It was little things at first. Things that didn’t stand out as wrong at the time, but in hindsight it feels obvious that something _happened_. Little things like the shower never running cold despite standing under the spray for longer than usual, like finishing his homework before dinner even though he was sure that he’d be working on it the rest of the night, like how he’s been on time getting to class every day this week even when there’s a ghost encounter on the way to school.

Danny tries to tell Sam and Tucker. Tries to tell them that he thinks something’s wrong, that something is _up_ , but they just brush it off.

“Maybe you got lucky with the shower?” Tucker suggests.

“You’re smarter than you think you are!” Sam assures.

“You’ve gotten so kickass with your powers dude!” Tucker crows, pumping his fists with a grin.

“Have you been leaving earlier? That might explain it,” Sam points out, shrugging it off.

Danny doesn’t believe he’s just gotten lucky or smarter or stronger, but he smiles and nods along with them, saying, “Yeah. That must be it. Sorry for being so weird about this.”

“It’s not a problem, Danny! You’re probably still a little out of it from having to kick your jerky older self’s butt.” Tucker puts a hand on Danny’s shoulder, nodding sagely.

Sam hip checks him and smiles back. “Don’t be afraid to tell us if something’s happening!”

Danny laughs. “I won’t!”

He keeps the oddities to himself after that.

For the next few months, nothing really changes. Life goes on, ghosts still attack, Danny’s grades slowly but surely pull up into the low A high B range they’d been the first couple weeks of high school, and still Sam and Tucker find nothing wrong with this strange new turn of events.

Jazz, however, once she finally joins the team and she and Danny go back to getting along, is more willing to listen to him when he says he thinks something is happening.

She pulls him into her room one day after driving him home from school and shoves him into her desk chair. She then pulls out a notebook and sits on her bed, giving him her full attention. “What do you think is happening?” she asks, cutting straight to the point.

Danny shrugs and rubs his arms. “I don’t know, really. It’s not like it’s been just _one thing_. It’s like a bunch of little things that all add up and point to the same thing, except I don’t even know if they do. I wanna just accept whatever it is, but the problem is that I don’t know _what_ it is.”

Jazz nods and jots down some notes. “And how long as this been going on?”

Danny hesitates and looks away. “Since the, uh, since the CATs.”

Jazz pauses her note taking and glances at him over the top of the notebook. “The CATs?” She bites her lip and looks back down. “Does this have anything to do with… you-know-who?”

Danny sighs and leans back in the chair, throwing his head back. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

The room is quiet for a few minutes before Jazz shifts to the side and pats the bed beside her. After a moment’s hesitation, Danny joins her and together the two flop backwards on the bed to look at the ceiling.

“What exactly happened?” Jazz asks, voice soft. “I know you somehow swapped places with that older future guy and got stuck in his time, but how did _that_ happen?”

Danny groans and shoves his hands into his eyes. “After Sam, Tuck, and I jumped through this portal in Clockwork’s lair into that timeline, we ran into Future Valerie, and then _he_ showed up and started attacking everyone. Sam and Tuck got out of there by taking off their time medallion things—they ended up back here in Amity like nothing happened. But.” Danny’s voice dies and he moves his hands to lay them at his side.

“But?” Jazz prompts, nudging him with her elbow.

“He phased the time medallion into my chest,” Danny says. He puts a hand over his breast bone and stares at the ceiling, eyes far away. “Just stuck it right in there. I don’t remember much right after that, just that I somehow ended up in the Ghost Zone, tied up and floating aimlessly.”

“How’d you get it out?” Jazz asks, voice little more than a whisper. She rolls over to face him and links an arm with one of his, a steady, calming anchor.

Danny tenses up, slight enough that she wouldn’t have noticed without physical contact. She squeezes his arm in an attempt to be reassuring and the hand resting on his chest slides over to sit over hers. “Vlad.” Danny looks at her from the corners of his eyes. He still has that thousand yard stare but a little bit of life creeps back into his eyes as he takes in the surprise on her face. “I found where he was hiding and got him to help pull it out.”

Jazz takes note of the finality in his voice and gracefully sweeps past the subject. She can ask him about it later. “And you came back here after that?”

“Yeah. And then I really only had enough time to grab some of Mom and Dad’s ghost gear before I had to fight him off.” Danny sighs. “I didn’t really win. Sure, I got him in a Thermos, but you guys all still…” His voice dies and her clears his throat. Jazz won’t make him say what happened. She knows he still has nightmares about it and she has a pretty good idea of what happened. “Clockwork stopped it. Reversed time, saved everyone, took the Thermos, gave me a second chance.”

“And how soon after did this Something start happening?”

“Pretty much right after.” Danny runs a hand through his bangs and closes his eyes, thinking back. “After I gave Lancer the test answers back, I went home and crashed in bed for a while. It felt like forever but it was only a couple hours.” Jazz nods and sits up to grab her notebook. She makes a few quick notes and Danny waits until her frantic scribbling slows to a stop. She gestures for him to continue and he tells her what he told Sam and Tucker.

He tells her about the shower and the homework and the suddenly improved grades and attendance and she listens, more so than Tucker and Sam ever did. It doesn’t surprise him at all, really. Jazz has always been the type to stop and listen, even if she _does_ have her moments of single mindedness. Even if this really does turn out to be nothing, he’s glad he’s got Jazz on his side to figure it out.

When he’s done explaining his concerns, she pauses and reads over her notes again. She purses her lips and lowers the notebook, giving Danny an expectant look. “Have you talked to Clockwork about this?”

That gives Danny pause. “About what?”

Jazz levels him with a look of absolute certainty. “It sounds to me like you’re gaining time.”

“Wait, what?” Danny throws himself upright so he can be at eye level with Jazz. “Explain.”

“That, or you’re slowing it down.” Jazz nods once herself and waves a hand up and down, from his head to his feet and back. “From what you told me, it sounds like you could be slowing down time.”

“That’s crazy,” Danny mumbles, crossing his arms. “ _Clockwork_ controls time. I can’t do _anything_ like that.”

“Not _before_ , you couldn’t.” Jazz raises a brow. “Think about it. You were fused to one of those time medallions for who knows _how_ long and you couldn’t just take it out on your own. Who’s to say that you _didn’t_ pick up some kind of temporal power?”

Danny squints at her for her use of the word “temporal,” but considers her words. “Maybe,” he says slowly, thinking aloud. “The time medallions allowed us to move outside of time. Whenever Clockwork froze time, if we had one of them on, we could still move around and stuff. And then when we were in the future, and when those future ghosts attacked this time, the medallions allowed us to stay there. Taking them off sent us, and them, home.” He presses his lips together. “Maybe you’re right.”

“You should talk to Clockwork,” Jazz says in between her notetaking. “I don’t think I can help you with this anymore.”

Danny reaches and puts his hand on hers, stilling her writing. Jazz looks up and he smiles at her. “You’ve already helped a lot. Thanks, Jazz.”

Jazz smiles back. “Anytime.”

* * *

 

Clockwork’s citadel is hard to find and Danny suspects the only reason he can is because Clockwork allows it. Danny’s never seen the outside of it before, but the giant floating cogs and gears make it pretty obvious he’s found the right place. The place looks like a cross between a grandfather clock and a castle and Danny has a nice chuckle at the tasteful scythes adorning some of the roofs.

The double doors at the base of the tower creak open and Danny pauses for a moment. He half expects Clockwork to greet him outside, but he’s equally unsurprised when nothing happens. He floats through the doors and ignores the way they close behind him in favor of seeking out Clockwork himself. Clockwork _has_ to know that Danny was coming, being the all-seeing and all-knowing Master of Time, so Danny doesn't feel _too_ bad about just barging in.

After all, the doors were open.

Danny comes to a stop in front of Clockwork’s viewing screens, too nosy for his own good and not completely looking forward to the conversation he knows the two of them sre going to have. They show ordinary, mundane scenes of many different people—and ghosts—going about their lives, oblivious to any unseen watchers.

“Everything is as it should be,” Clockwork says from behind Danny, startling the boy several feet higher than he’d previously been floating.

“Clockwork!” Danny says, spinning around and lowering himself to be closer to eye level.

“Hello, Danny.” Clockwork cracks the barest hint of a smile and Danny rolls his eyes. “Come,” Clockwork says, waving Danny over as he turns and floats off. “We have much to discuss.”

Danny follows quickly, turning his head to catch a glimpse of the row of Time Medallions hanging on a rack near the portal screens. He shudders once and looks away.

Clockwork leads him through several archways to a library full of different types of texts; scrolls, stone tablets, and the oldest books Danny’s ever seen all line the walls and crowd the towering shelves. Clockwork gestures to a small nook with several cozy looking couches and nods, encouraging him to sit.

Danny hovers over to the nearest overstuffed arm chair and allows himself to fall into it, giving it to the artificial gravity of the Zone. It’s a comfy chair, just like he’d hoped it would be and he can feel the tension leaving his shoulders. Clockwork sits on the chair opposite his and waits, giving Danny a chance to mentally prepare himself for their talk.

Eventually, Clockwork clears his throat to catch Danny’s full attention. “I know you’re nervous, but do try to relax.” Danny huffs, somewhere between amusement and exasperation, then Clockwork continues. “I’m sure by now you’ve noticed the temporal abnormalities you’ve been experiencing.”

“So…” Danny’s brow furrows. “It _is_ a time thing?”

“Correct.” Clockwork smiles at the boy. “I’m afraid your experiences with the timestream have had… an unforeseen outcome.”

“‘Unforeseen?’” Danny echoes, bolting upright. “I thought you saw everything!”

Clockwork gives a slight grimace. “As the Master of Time, I have the unique privilege of experiencing time like an outsider. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always extend to myself, or anything existing outside of time.” Clockwork reaches into his cloak and produces a Time Medallion. “Wearing these allows someone to temporarily displace themself anywhere in the timestream and instantly return as soon is it is removed.

“They’re not made to become a part of one’s person.” Clockwork outright frowns. “When this Medallion was fused to you, it lost some of its potency.” He passes it over to Danny and the boy frowns as he inspects it. “The medallions make the wearer immune to my ability to totally stop time by placing them, _technically_ , outside of time.”

“So what does that mean for me?” Danny asks, looking back up at Clockwork.

“It means, Danny, that your sister was correct. You’ve developed an immunity of sorts to the normal flow of time, becoming something of a human Time Medallion. I’m unaware as of yet how far this power will extend, but if I’m correct, the ability will only be limited to yourself and whatever is on your person, including anyone you may be in direct contact with.”

Danny blinks several times, processing the words. “That’s actually kinda cool.”

Clockwork allows himself a small chuckle. “Because of this slight immunity to time, you also appear to be exhibiting some temporal displacement abilities, the ‘gaining time’ that Jazz mentioned. What this means is that time moves much more slowly around you while allowing you move freely and as normal. From an outside perspective, one might say that you look to be moving at high speeds.”

Danny nods as he turns the words over in his head. “When you say that you can’t always see things that exist outside of time, does that mean you can’t, like, watch over me? Since I have the immunity?”

“I can see you just fine the majority of the time, don’t worry,” Clockwork says, waving off the concern written on Danny’s face. “When you use your powers, it’s like looking through a fog. The image becomes distorted and blurred, but then it clears up again.”

“I didn’t even know I was using them.”

Clockwork nods and smirks. “Control will come with time.” Danny snorts, and relaxes a little. “Have you noticed anything in common with the incidents?”

Danny thinks, pushing a fist against his chin. “Uh… They all seemed to times when I wanted… more… time…” He trails off, eyes wide. “Wow. I wanted more time in the shower, I wanted my homework done faster, I wanted to be on time for school… and then it all happened.” Danny cracks a grin. “That’s pretty useful.”

“Indeed.” Clockwork looks Danny in the eyes. “I just want to impart with you the importance of not _abusing_ an ability like this. Time is a powerful thing.” Danny nods, completely serious. “That said,” Clockwork grins again, “I cannot stop you from using it to your leisure.”

Danny laughs. “So, what, exactly, can I do with… whatever I’m supposed to call this?”

“What you call it is up to you. What I _can_ tell you is that a power like yours has limits, and you can rest easy with the knowledge that your temporal powers are no where as powerful as mine. You cannot stop the flow of time completely, nor can you reverse it or speed it up. Your power is limited to only slightly and temporarily slowing down time for yourself. That’s it.”

“That’s still pretty awesome,” Danny says, gazing at the Medallion in his hands again. “Hey, wait. You said I’m kinda like one of these things, right? Does that mean you can’t freeze me in time anymore?”

Clockwork blinks, expression flat. With no warning, he raises his staff and says, “Time Out!”

Danny suddenly feels like he’s underwater or submerged in something thick and viscous. He blinks, ever so slowly and moves his head up, inch by inch to look at Clockwork. Before he can say anything, Clockwork moves—and he’s fast, so fast, like he’s dropping frames to snap into new positions without any movement between them—and then Danny is free from the heavy feeling. “That was weird,” is all he says.

Clockwork nods. “It appears I can no longer stop you completely, and you can move under your own power ever so slightly. From my perspective, it was as if you were moving in slow motion.”

Danny throws his head back and laughs, the idea that the crazy powerful Master of Time being unable to control him completely being too hilarious to pass up. Clockwork rolls his eyes—though it’s hard to tell without a pupil—but allows Danny to ride out his amusement.

“I feel you have another question for me,” Clockwork prods, drawing Danny back to the present.

Danny nods, rubbing a tear from his eye. “Yeah, just one.” He holds up the Medallion and asks, “How did this give me time powers?”

“Danny, how much do you know about how ghosts work?”

Danny shrugs. “Not a whole lot. I know ghosts are made of ectoplasm and that ectoplasm is kinda everywhere, but I don’t really know how much of what I heard Mom and Dad talking about growing up is true.”

Clockwork nods. “Ghosts are, indeed, made of ectoplasm, and ectoplasm can exist in many different types and forms, including raw energy. At the center of every ghost exists what is known as a Core. A Core is the purest essence of a ghost and where the most powerful abilities and attacks originate. I won’t get into the types of Cores for now, but I will tell you that there are seven elemental types, two incorporeal types, and then an additional, unspecialized type.”

Danny nods, eyes wide. “Do I have a Core?”

“Yes, you do.” Clockwork points at the center of Danny’s chest, just right of his heart. “And it because you possess a Core that the Medallion had such an effect on you.”

“Wha—really? How?” Danny presses a hand against his chest, along his breast bone, and he can almost imagine his feels a thrumming pulse he never noticed before.

“When the Medallion interacted with your Core, some of the energy that infused with the Medallion was absorbed by your Core. Whether it was self-preservation to protect you from the foreign object, a subconscious absorption of power, or a result of your Core still developing, some of the Medallion’s powers were leeched off and into you. Over time, this new energy and ability has settled in your Core and it has become a part of you.”

“When it was still stuck in here, I learned how to use my Wail. And even though I felt tired afterward, I could still keep going. Would that have made a difference?” Danny tilts his head in question. “Or was it just because I was in the Zone?”

“It could have been both.” Clockwork thinks it over for a second. “That’s likely when the strongest transfer of power happened. The Medallion fed you some of its energy to recover what you used in your attack.”

“Weird.” Danny stretches in his seat, considering everything that he’s learned. It takes him several minutes to sort through his thoughts, but then he looks up at Clockwork, eyes glowing brightly in determination. “Teach me how to control it.”

Clockwork smiles and takes to the air again. “It would be my pleasure.”

**Author's Note:**

> i was gonna write another scene at the end but i decided to scrap it bc it felt like it was dragging on too long. but i'm happy with what i've got! lemme know what you think!
> 
> crossposted to tumblr [here](https://gottacatchghosts.tumblr.com/post/184566326851/frame-by-frame)


End file.
